18 October, 2016

Stein: in times of great social upheaval, third parties occasionally prevail

'We,
the people, were standing up and leading the charge towards the kinds
of policies that we actually deserve. It’s important for us to lead
with the politics of courage. The politics of fear, unfortunately,
has delivered everything we were afraid of.'

Amy Goodman
of Democracy Now! explains again the process, in this second
presidential debate: “We spend the rest of today’s show airing
excerpts of the Donald Trump-Hillary Clinton debate and give Green
Party presidential candidate Jill Stein a chance to respond to the
same questions posed to the major-party candidates. Again, Dr. Stein
and Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson were excluded
from the debate under stringent rules set by the Commission on
Presidential Debates, which is controlled by the Democratic and
Republican parties. We invited both Stein and Johnson to join us on
the program; only Stein took us up on the offer.”

In this
third part of the second debate, Jill Stein showed again why she is a
real alternative against the bipartisan establishment, especially
when she referred to the key issue of the US healthcare system.

In the
corresponding question, both Clinton and Trump avoided to take a
clear position and give an idea of how will they deal with the
currently ineffective healthcare system. Clinton tried to highlight
the benefits of Obamacare, acknowledging though that it had some
weaknesses, while Trump fully attacked it as totally ineffective,
without however, presenting his plan for an effective and viable
healthcare system.

On the
contrary, Jill Stein spoke about the root of the problem, through
real figures. As she pointed, a terrifying percentage of US citizens
are effectively excluded from the healthcare system, as one out of
every three Americans now cannot afford healthcare. Furthermore, a
monstrous 25% of healthcare costs are spent on wasteful paper
pushing, on CEO salaries, on advertising, etc., on exorbitant
pharmaceutical costs.

So, you have
immediately a key part of the solution. The healthcare system needs
to be redirected to those who should truly serve: US citizens.
Therefore, as Jill Stein pointed, “Under an improved
Medicare-for-all system, that 25 percent overhead is reduced to about
1 percent, 1 to 2 percent overhead. So it enables us to put our
healthcare dollars truly into healthcare, [...] It gets corporations
off your back, and it gets CEOs out of the business of deciding and
micromanaging your healthcare.”

Neither
Clinton nor Trump dared to mention that the healthcare system could
function effectively, simply by removing lobbyists' interests for the
benefit of ordinary people.

Finally,
Jill Stein sent her message to the American people, stating that it's
up to them to beat the establishment and its favorite policies. As
she mentioned: “Abraham Lincoln was a third-party candidate, and
that in times of great social upheaval, third parties occasionally
prevail.”

She also
referred to the example of Richard Nixon, and how people through
their struggles managed to beat some Nixon's bad policies: “I
just want to underscore for people to remember what happened under
Richard Nixon, one of the most terrible, regressive, oppressive
presidents we’ve ever had, where we had the courage of our
convictions. And under this terrible president, we achieved bringing
the troops home from Vietnam, women’s right to choose, the Clean
Air Act, the Clean Water Act, protections for workers in the
workplace, because we, the people, were standing up and leading the
charge towards the kinds of policies that we actually deserve. It’s
important for us to lead with the politics of courage. The politics
of fear, unfortunately, has delivered everything we were afraid of.”

Key
points:

It’s not rocket science how to fix this disaster that
the Affordable Care Act is. In fact, healthcare costs are
skyrocketing. It’s now—you know, we pay essentially $3 trillion a
year, is what the price tag is for healthcare, when you include
government, business and out-of-pocket expenses. One out of every
three Americans now cannot afford healthcare. Yes, the numbers of
coverage have gone up, but there is massive underinsurance, and it is
prohibitive.

Right now 25 percent of healthcare costs are spent on
wasteful paper pushing, on CEO salaries, on advertising, etc., on
exorbitant pharmaceutical costs like paying $400 for an EpiPen, which
contains $1 worth of medication. This is the kind of abuse that
is built into this program, because we do not have the capacity to
negotiate and do bulk purchasing, which needs to be built in.

Under an improved Medicare-for-all system, that 25
percent overhead is reduced to about 1 percent, 1 to 2 percent
overhead. So it enables us to put our healthcare dollars truly into
healthcare, so that you are covered, head to toe, cradle to
grave, your mental health, your pharmaceuticals, your hearing aid,
your insulin pump, whatever, and your reproductive healthcare and
your mental healthcare. And the healthcare decisions are between you
and your doctor. It gets corporations off your back, and it gets
CEOs out of the business of deciding and micromanaging your
healthcare.

Donald Trump’s abusive behavior and abusive language
towards women and everybody else is shameful and despicable [...] At
the same time, it’s very important that we not lose sight, not
allow this despicable incident here to overshadow the other issues
that are very much at stake. Let’s just look, for example, at
the condition of our youth and our younger generation, not only the
sky-high rates of unemployment they’re facing, the incredible
skyrocketing of the costs of college education, the fact that 43
million young people are locked into predatory student loan debt with
no way out in the economy as it exists, with low-wage, part-time,
temporary jobs having, you know, become available since the Wall
Street crash. That recovery is pretty much limited to the upper 5 to
10 percent, a few little, you know, changes around the margins, but
this hasn’t been a recovery for everyday people.

Hillary’s statement about the public views versus the
private views, that’s certainly borne out by her history, where,
you know, her public statement is that she is the friend to women and
children, but, in fact, privately and her actual track record is to
dismantle Aid to Families with Dependent Children, to have supported
NAFTA and the offshoring of our jobs, to support the Trans-Pacific
Partnership.

In Haiti, as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton led the
charge to push down the abysmal poverty wages of the Haitian people
from 60 cents an hour down to a shocking 40 cents an hour, so as to
boost the profits of the American corporation. So, you know, and on
Black Lives Matter, you know, there was lip service to the cause of
racial justice. But the Democratic Party official position, revealed
again in some leaked emails, was that, you know, pat them on the
head, you know, meet with them, but don’t make any concessions to
them, do not give them any ground, do not, in other words,
acknowledge what a crisis situation this is, where African Americans
are at risk, driving in their cars down the street, from police
violence.

Abraham Lincoln was a third-party candidate, and
that in times of great social upheaval, third parties occasionally
prevail. And for so many people, the issue here is the politics
of fear and the greater fear of Donald Trump that overrides
everything else, including Hillary Clinton’s record creating the
economic misery leading to the rise of Donald Trump. So I just want
to underscore for people to remember what happened under Richard
Nixon, one of the most terrible, regressive, oppressive presidents
we’ve ever had, where we had the courage of our convictions. And
under this terrible president, we achieved bringing the troops home
from Vietnam, women’s right to choose, the Clean Air Act, the Clean
Water Act, protections for workers in the workplace, because we,
the people, were standing up and leading the charge towards the kinds
of policies that we actually deserve. It’s important for us to lead
with the politics of courage. The politics of fear, unfortunately,
has delivered everything we were afraid of.